Is social media used for insight? A recent report released by Harvard Business Review suggests no. A survey of 2,100 companies found that the majority of companies focused on social media primarily as a channel to push information.

The report says, “While more than half [of companies] are using social media, only about one quarter of users said they could identify where their most valuable customers are ‘talking’ about them. And less than one quarter (23%) are using any form of social media analytic tools, with only 5% using some form of customer sentiment analysis.”

Furthermore, when asked to select the top three primary benefits of social media, only 19% chose “improved insights about our target market” and only 20% pointed to “better understanding of customer perceptions of our brand.”

MREB View: MREB research on social media listening echoes the findings of this survey, ultimately concluding that while there seems to be success in monitoring buzz, sentiment, and the effectiveness of marketing’s social media activities, generating insight off social media is not yet achievable.

One downfall of most social media data as it pertains to insight generation (and one alluded to by the results of this survey) is the difficulty of understanding who it is you’re listening to. As the survey put it, who is your most valuable customer, and where are they talking?  This shortcoming is one that invitation-only, controlled online communities have solved. MREB members, learn the basics of online communities and how to manage potential bias from communities.

How do the survey results fit with your experiences? If you have a social media success story (or lesson learned), e-mail me at ebarrett@executiveboard.com.